Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), an institute of international repute devoted to management education, announced an architectural competition for its extension in 1999.This new campus was to be built on the adjacent plot separated from the original campus by a road. After the initial application phase, ten firms were invited for the first and three for the second phase and finally HCP Design, Planning and Management (HCPDPM) was awarded the project. HCPDPM has over fifty years of experience in architecture, urban design, project management and interior design. It was founded by Hasmukh C. Patel in 1960, and is now led by his son, Bimal Patel. The design philosophy is modernist, driven to clearly identifying the ‘practical problem’ that needs solving to make buildings comfortable and pleasurable.

The new campus is accommodated in a 39 acre site and includes facilities like 9 dormitories for 340 students; an academic block with 5 classrooms and seminar rooms; administrative facilities ; IMDC Hostels; 22 blocks for married students; 6 VIP suites; a sports complex; kitchen & dining facilities; a CIIE Block and 100 guestrooms. The public areas are designed to be accessible to the disabled and adequate land has been demarcated for future expansion.

The architecture of the new campus maintains a consistency with the abstraction of forms and geometric rigor. Like in Kahn’s campus, learning and living in the new campus is successfully integrated and the focus is placed on circulation by using elevated corridors as principal ordering devices. However, the spatial organization of the new campus is more compact. All individual buildings work as a continuum between the inside and the outside, enabling multiple walking routes between and through buildings to reach any destination. Such an arrangement enlivens the experience of moving about in the campus by allowing more chance encounters between the inhabitants while also offering views of gardens, large trees and a water pool. The play of light and shadow creates a variety that renews the appearance of the buildings continuously throughout the day.

Although the new campus functions independently from the original without any direct visual link and even has its own approach road and entrance halls, it is connected to the original campus by means of an underpass. This pedestrian passage is really the pivot and is located such that it not only connects, but really binds the two campuses together. Apart from this, the 132 ft underpass doubles up as an exhibition space for the institution and has become a reference point on how to successfully address pedestrian movement while bridging disconnects in cities. The option of having an overpass was overruled on account of the fact that an underpass would provide better respite from the harsh climate and that they are psychologically easier to use. Users tend to deal with descending first and ascending later much better than vice versa.

On one end, is the walkway between Kahn’s class rooms and dormitories and this axis continues in a straight line on the other side into the new campus as a promenade ending at the new water tower. On one side of this street (like a mirror image to the Kahn’s concept) are lined the dormitories arranged in rows of three diagonally one behind the other and on the other side stand the new lecture halls and seminar rooms. The CII Block and all other areas of the IMDC are attached at right angles on the north side and the residential units with detached houses for married students are placed on the west side in a staggering arrangement.

The architects were conscious but did not want to imitate Kahn’s palette or grammar. Thus the buildings of the new campus are built in exposed concrete as the primary building material with fenestrations in a combination of mild steel and wood. To offset, and sometimes heighten the austerity of the new, crisp and smoothly shuttered concrete forms, metal screens designed by Walter D’Souza are often introduced into the fabric of the building.

However, a deliberate attempt is made to make references and provide continuities, for example the position of the buildings on the new site, the manner in which they connect with the present campus, the use of diagonal geometries in the layout of the dorms, the use of a semicircular stair and turrets, the use of materials, compositions which use abstract forms and large plain surfaces, and the overall sense of restraint in the architecture all pay tribute to Kahn, without actually copying him. The fundamental formal analogies of a rigid geometry, simplicity and reticence of the architectural language, paired with austerity of large, even walls, are a tribute to the Master.

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad or IIMA) is a publicbusiness school located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It was the second Indian Institute of Management (IIM) to be established, after IIM Calcutta.[3]

Established in 1961, the institute offers post graduate diploma programmes in management and agri-business management, a fellowship programme and a number of executive training programmes.[4] The Institute's founding director was Ravi J. Mathhai.[5] Other notable founding figures were the Indian physicist Vikram Sarabhai and Indian businessman Kasturbhai Lalbhai.[5]

History

IIM Ahmedabad was established on 11 December 1961 with the active support of the Government of India, the Government of Gujarat, Harvard Business School, and prominent members of Indian industry. The physicist Vikram Sarabhai and businessman Kasturbhai Lalbhai, both natives of Ahmedabad, played pivotal roles in setting up the institute. The institute's Kasturbhai Lalbhai Management Development Centre and a Kasturbhai Lalbhai Chair in Entrepreneurship are named in his honour. The management educator Ravi J. Matthai and several other Ahmedabad-based industrialists also played a major role in its creation.[6][7][8][9]

Campus

The IIMA campus is situated across 106 acres in Vastrapur, Ahmedabad. The campus houses the academic blocks, faculty offices, student and faculty accommodation, the Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Library, the R.J. Mathai Auditorium, the Louis Kahn Plaza, the International Management Development Centre, the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Management Development Centre, the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, sport facilities, several food outlets and merchandise stores.[10]

Architecture

In 1962, the IIMA board came to a formal agreement with the National Institute of Design (NID) for the latter to undertake the task of designing the IIM Ahmedabad campus. The National Institute of Design appointed American architect Louis Kahn and B.V. Doshi as architects for the project. Kahn worked on the IIMA project from 1962 until his death in 1974.

Kahn's architecture is characterized by the use of exposed red bricks, the extensive use of geometric shapes in hostels and academic blocks and vast corridors outside the classrooms. A number of tourists and architecture students visit the campus every year.[11]

Vikram Sarabhai Library

The library is named after the institute’s founder, renowned physicist Vikram Sarabhai. The library was instituted in 1962 and houses over 193000 books and has online subscriptions to greater than 24000 journals. The library provides access to 100+ digital databases relating to scholarly, company and industry information to the IIMA community. The library is located at the Louis Kahn Plaza. In year 2016, Tata Consultancy Services partnered with the university with a grant of ₹20 crore (US$3.1 million) to restore the library for digital learning and collaboration.[12]

Student accommodation

Students are provided single room accommodation in the 33 fully furnished dormitories spread across the campus. Married students can opt to live with their family in married students' hostels. Stay in dormitories is mandatory for students. Basic amenities including washing machines, refrigerators and TVs are available at each dorm. The architecture of the dormitories promotes sociability among the residents.[13]

Academics

Like other IIMs, IIM Ahmedabad currently offers post graduate diplomas in management, not degrees, pending the approval of the Indian Institute of Management Bill, 2017.[14] These include two-year full-time programmes (PGP),[15] one-year full-time residential executive programme (PGPX),[16] and ePost Graduate Programme (ePGP) in Management.[17] IIM Ahmedabad also offers doctoral level fellowship programmes.[18] The institute conducts a number of executive education and faculty development programmes.

Exchange Programmes

IIMA has affiliations with 78 leading business schools across the world. In 2015-16, 140 students from IIMA spent a semester at affiliate business schools across North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and the Asia Pacific region, while 87 students from foreign colleges spent a semester at IIMA for the same period. The Institute has a Dual Degree programme arrangement with a few business schools such as HEC Paris, Bocconi University, ESSEC Business School in Paris, University of Cologne and ESCP Europe. Some of the students going on exchange receive scholarships from the Institute, DAAD Germany, the French Government and participating schools.[19]

Research centers

The university has the following sector or mission oriented centres which are staffed by faculty members:[20]

Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE) - It was originally set up in 2002 as a research institution, with a grant pool from Government of Gujarat, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and IIM-A.[21] It now operates as a section 8 non profit company under Companies Act 2013. The centre supports 40-60 ventures every year through its accelerator programmes, incubation spaces and seed investment programme.[22] The centre has about 20,000 sq ft of incubation space in Ahmedabad, 30,000 sq ft in Pune and is in the process of setting up another one in Pune spread over 10,000 sq ft.[22] The center also has a Young IIMAvericks Fellowship/Internship Programme[23] for batch of graduating students who decide to take the route of entrepreneurship.[23] In 2015, CIIE was invited to co-host the first India-US Startup Konnect in the Silicon Valley to showcase the strengths of India's startup ecosystem.[24][25] In 2017, Securities and Exchange Board of India gave approval to Bharat Innovation Fund to operate as a Venture Capital Fund and also secured Category – I Venture Capital Fund status.[26]

India Gold Policy Centre

Centre for e-Governance

Centre for Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity

Centre for Infrastructure Policy and Regulation

Centre for Management of Health Services

Centre for Retailing

IIMA-Idea Telecom Centre of Excellence

Plagiarism

In the 1960s the institute's first faculty dismissal took place for plagiarising verbatim an article from a German journal which that faculty member had access to.[27]

On 29 June 1992 a student complained to the Director IIM-A that a textbook authored by Institute professors had been simply lifted from three other books. On enquiry a Committee found copying without acknowledgment of the source from least 5 foreign books and some other Indian books.[28]

In the 3rd such instance of alleged plagiarism,[29] around 21 March 2012, 5 IIM-A professors were accused of plagiarism a fortnight after the Gujarat High Court had directed a fresh inquiry into earlier plagiarism allegations.[30][31] Two of the professors holding key posts had offered to step down until the enquiry was completed.[32] In July 2012 IIM sources claimed the inquiry report exonerating some of these professors was deliberately withheld (and not formally placed on the Institute records) since three of the four professors who were accused of plagiarism were potential candidates for the director's post and could be considered only after the allegations are found to be baseless.[33]

In 2005-06 five students were found to have used the work of others without giving credit. They were caught and made to repeat a year.[29][34]

Rankings

Worldwide, the Financial Times has ranked IIM Ahmedabad #16 in its Masters in Management Ranking 2016[35] and #29 in its Global MBA Ranking 2017.[36] The QS Global 250 MBA Rankings 2018 ranked it 49 in the world[37] and 7th in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.[38] The QS Global 100 EMBA Rankings by Region 2017 ranked it 13 in the Asia-Pacific region,[39] the top institute in India for both rankings. It was ranked #92 by The Economist in its 2016 Full-time B-school ranking, the only institute in India to be ranked.[40]

In India, IIM Ahmedabad was ranked first among management schools in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2017[42] and 17 overall.[41] It was also ranked first in India by Business Today's "India's best B-schools 2016"[43] and Outlook India's "Top 100 Management Schools" of 2016.[44]

Student life

Student bodies

The Student Affairs' Council (SAC) is the umbrella student body at IIMA that helps in the administration of the 40+ clubs and committees on campus.

Events

Confluence

Confluence is the annual international management symposium hosted by IIM Ahmedabad. This event was started in 1999.[45] The primary events at Confluence include Masterplan, the business plan competition; a business quiz event; a business simulation event and a business strategy simulation event.[46] The speaker series at Confluence has seen eminent speakers in the past including Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Kiran Bedi, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chandrababu Naidu, Rakesh Sharma etc.[47][48]

Chaos

Chaos is the annual cultural festival of IIMA and one of the biggest in the region.[49] Its yearly editions have been centred on themes like diversity, colour or going green.[49] The cultural festivities draws footfalls of around 50,000 visitors from Ahmedabad over four days and participation from institutes across the country.[50] ProNites are especially a huge success with a large number of top class artists coming and performing on one stage.[49] In the past, Chaos has witnessed musical performances by Jagjit Singh, Amit Trivedi, Raghu Dixit, Mohit Chauhan and Shankar Ehsaan Loy to name a few.[50][51]

Insight

Insight is the annual Market Research festival of IIMA and is one of the oldest events organised by the institute.[52] Insight is known for its application of innovative marketing research tools.[53]

ConneXions

ConneXions is the event for the PGPX program at IIMA. It is a knowledge summit that epitomizes the vibrancy and buzz of a business school. ConneXions has seen a lot of eminent speakers from the industry including Suresh Prabhu, Kiran Karnik, Ramaswami Balasubramaniam, Ram Sewak Sharma, Tamal Bandyopadhyay, Shyam Srinivasan etc.

The Red Brick Summit

The Red Brick Summit (TRBS) is the flagship management symposium of IIMA. It had its inaugural edition in 2017 from September 29 to October 2.[54]

Other Events

In addition to the above, the Institute organises: Amaethon, an international food, agribusiness and rural summit; Convergence, a management conference organised by the Armed Forces Programme; two sports fests - Sangharsh (on a rotational basis with IIM Bangalore, Calcutta and Lucknow) and Shaurya.

Placements

The placement process at IIM Ahmedabad is a student driven process that institutionalises placements for the entire batch. The Placement Committee elected by the students liaisons between the Institute administration, students and recruiters. Placements for the PGP and PGP-FABM courses are characterised by two phases - summer placements for the first-year batch and final placements for the graduating batch. The placement process for the graduating is conducted in two stages. The first is the laterals process where firms interview students with prior work experience and offer them mid-level managerial positions. The second stage is the final placement process. Companies from multiple sectors across different geographies hire candidates for a wide range of functions [55]

Impact

Business

IIMA has been instrumental in influencing the business landscape of the country, with the highest proportion of BSE 500 CEOs (who have an MBA) coming from IIMA.[56] More than 400 students provide live consulting for businesses through the Forum for Industry Interaction annually. 84 projects were undertaken by students in 2015.[57]

Policy

A key study by IIMA on salaries in the private and public sector helped shape the 7th Central Pay Commission’s recommendations.[58] Professors from IIMA have been appointed to eminent panels and committees, responsible for shaping key policies, by the government.[59] IIMA’s Gold Policy Centre is in the process of publishing a paper on the government’s Gold Monetization Policy.[60] The Punjab Prisons Department has signed an MoU with IIMA for a prison modernization project.[61] The Central Vigilance Commission has asked IIMA to come up with India’s first index to measure perceptions of graft and corruption, based on the Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International.[62] Key studies on state health indexes have also been released by IIMA, helping to highlight the progress made on the same by various states across the country.[63]

Training

Through its Executive Education programs, IIMA will train key senior officers from Chhattisgarh, as well as state Chief Minister Raman Singh, focussing on key management practices and project management.[64] Officers from the Delhi Jal Board will also undergo training on Project and Risk Management.[65] An MoU has also been signed between the institute and the Delhi Govt to train the principals of all 1024 schools run by it, with the training to be conducted by the RTE Resource Centre.[66]

Social

RTE-RC

The Right to Education Resource Centre (RTE-RC), started by a group of students under the guidance of Prof. Ankur Sarin, helps parents fill out forms and get children admitted under the RTE Act, while also raising awareness about the issue of underutilization of the Act. The Centre received 1800 application in its first year of operation, raising the number of children admitted under RTE from 30 in 2013 to nearly 600 in 2014.[67]

Prayaas

Launched in 2004, Prayaas impacts the lives underprivileged students by directly providing them a higher quality of education through specially appointed teachers, with classes running out of the New Campus, as also through funding drives that enable students to move to better schools, in a hope for better education and better lives. The IIMA community actively helps the children with their homework and preparation for examinations. Additionally, the children use the campus' facilities and participate in activities like painting, dance, crafts, etc.[68]

SMILE

IIMA, in association with the Wagh Bakri Group, set up an initiative called SMILE (Student Mediated Initiative for Learning to Excel) to educate underprivileged kids wherein students will conduct classes in their free time. This has been piloted in a space provided by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) under a flyover near the IIM-A campus.[69]

People

Notable alumni

Main article: List of IIM Ahmedabad alumni

Many alumni from the institute have made a name for themselves.[70] Among BSE 500 CEOs with MBA, the highest proportion come from IIM Ahmedabad.[71]

Notable faculty

19th Governor of the Reserve Bank of IndiaC. Rangarajan was a faculty Professor[72] of economics here and was later awarded the title of Honorary Fellow of IIM-A in 1997. N. Ravichandaran who is currently a Professor, previously served as 4th director of Indian Institute of Management Indore.[73]Abhishek Mishra was a faculty member for six years, before leaving to become a member of Samajwadi Party and an elected MLA of Uttar Pradesh.[74][75]Anil Kumar Gupta was a professor who was awarded Padma Shri for his contributions to management education.[76][77]

Others

N. R. Narayana Murthy, Indian IT industrialist and the co-founder of Infosys, got his first job as chief systems programmer at IIM Ahmedabad.[78]

In popular culture

The campus was the site for the shooting of the Bollywood film 2 States directed by Abhishek Varman. The film is based on the 2009 novel of the same name written by Chetan Bhagat.

See also

References

^"Kumar Mangalam Birla appointed as new chairman of IIM-A". The Indian Express. 23 October 2016.

^"Professor Errol D'Souza appointed the new director of IIM Ahmedabad". The Economic Times. Retrieved 31 January 2018.